The present invention relates to photovoltaic (PV) solar panel systems, and more particularly relates to a PV-solar panel system with stressed-skin, monocoque supporting structure that functions to optimally position the solar panels for receiving sunlight as the sun's position changes in its daily transit from east to west, but that also minimizes weight, cost of materials, installation costs, and capital investment of such systems by incorporating a monocoque-mounting structure fabricated from relatively thin, curved materials which eliminates most of the skeletal support structures required in planar mounting of photovoltaic materials common to known solar installations.
Solar-electric systems installations are expensive not only because of the costs of the solar cells/panels themselves and balance of system components, but also because of the costs to acquire and install the underlying physical-support structures they require. In common practice, solar-electric panel systems (photovoltaic arrays) use structural metal beams to provide the physical support for the active, electricity generating solar materials so that the photovoltaic materials are supported at optimal angles to the sun, having optimal spacing in an array/field of solar panels, and creating the designed physical mounting strength to meet weight and wind-load and environmental requirements for the installation.
Further, many solar panel systems include pivot-and-tracking mechanisms so that solar panel modules can be continuously oriented toward the sun as it tracks across the sky. However, these tracked-arrays represent the highest cost approach to mounting PV-materials because the heavy gauge structural support frames and pivot-and-tracking mechanisms are expensive to buy, install, operate, and maintain. While these “tracking” PV systems may provide the absolute maximum generating power for a given number of framed PV-panels, their overall higher initial cost and potential for failures in the tracking mechanisms may detract from their competitiveness for solar panel systems as compared to the fixed-orientation solar installation described herein.